AND YOU WONDERED WHY WAR PROFITEER AND SERVANT OF RED CHINA SEN DIANNE FEINSTEIN WAS QUICK TO BE FIRST TO ENDORSE OL' CORRUPT JOE???
The Worst President in the Last 100 Years" - Victor Davis Hanson
In Defense of Hunter Biden
Notwithstanding Hunter Biden's moral deficiencies in other matters, based on what has been publicized so far, legally, he may have done nothing wrong being part of his father's Ukrainian enterprise. Joe Biden’s shenanigans and his son’s role in it need to be understood in the context of Ukraine's corrupt political culture.
Corruption is deeply embedded into the Ukrainian DNA. It is the blood of the Ukrainian economy - the stimulus for government officials and employees to perform their duties. Corruption is a fundamental necessity, a precondition for functioning governance.
Never-ending redistribution and re-division of assets is a defining characteristic of the Ukrainian business environment. People in business are constantly threatened by corporate raiders that attack businesses with guns, forged ownership documents, or new laws and regulations. To protect themselves from these realities, businesses hire “roof.” In criminal jargon, it means protection. Various entities offer protection: organized crime, police, high-ranking government officials, etc. The necessity for a “roof” is built into the cost of doing business.
In 2002, during President Viktor Yanukovych's tenure, his ecology minister Mykola Zlochevsky registered Burisma Holding Limited in Cypress. Burisma secured lucrative government licenses for gas field exploration and production to become Ukraine's second-largest private gas company. And not by accident. De jure, the licenses for the exploration of natural resources are drafted as bilateral agreements between the government entities and private enterprises, but de facto, they are unilateral and revocable grants of privileges by a president and high-ranking government officials to their cronies and supporters. As long as President Yanukovych was in power, Mr. Zlochevsky’s assets were secured from a hostile takeover. President Yanukovych was his “roof” and benefactor.
But nothing is permanent in the wicked Ukrainian world.
In February 2014, Yanukovych was overthrown in an America-sponsored coup and fled the country. Zlochevsky followed him shortly after. In a dramatic reversal of fortunes, Burisma overnight changed from one of the strongest to one of the weakest. The recourse of the weakest was to find a new “roof” before the newly-elected Petro Poroshenko’s government was sworn in during June 2014.
It is unknown when and who approached Joe Biden or John Kerry, Secretary of State at the time, and what was offered in exchange for lobbying and political support. But on April 22, 2014, Devon Archer, a managing partner of Rosemont Seneca Partners, a $2.4 billion private equity firm co-owned by the stepson of John Kerry, Christopher Heinz, was put on Burisma’s board.
On May 13, 2014, Hunter Biden himself joined the board.
On the same day, Christopher Heinz rushed to distance himself and the firm from what looked like an unscrupulous endeavor. He sent emails to Matt Summers and David Wade, two of his stepfather’s top aides at the State Department, “I can’t speak why they decided to, but there was no investment by our firm in their company,” wrote Heinz. Whether Christopher Heinz intended to dissociate his firm from the activity or to create plausible deniability, the passage revealed that the State Department was aware of the arrangement and exposed Christopher Heinz’s concern regarding, if not the legality, the ethics of the undertaking.
For Burisma, the impact of having Hunter Biden and Devon Archer on its board could not be overstated. It had acquired an ultimate “roof” — the Vice President of the United States of America. We must not be naïve; Burisma did not hire good-for-nothing drug addict Hunter Biden for his expertizes or business acumen. It did not hire obscure Devon Archer for his administrative genius either — they were simply messengers. There was no other way to interpret the assignments of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer to the board of Burisma.
By their presence on the board the “roof” sent a subliminal message to Poroshenko, who made no secret of his desire to add Burisma to his basket of assets, that the United States government protects. Although Poroshenko got the message, he could not resist the temptation. As soon as he was sworn in, he directed his prosecutor-general, Vitally Yarema, to open a corruption investigation into Burisma.
Corruption investigations have been an effective instrument of force reallocating assets in Ukraine. It is important to point out that Yarema did not investigate Hunter Biden. There was simply nothing to investigate, Burisma was a private company and could appoint to its board anybody. Yarema was tasked to uncover or manufacture some dirt on Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky.
In January 2015, Yarema was replaced with Poroshenko’s close associate Viktor Shokin, who continued the investigation. Just like his predecessor, Viktor Shokin did not investigate Hunter Biden. Prosecutor Shokin was directed by President Poroshenko to build a corruption case to forfeit the profitable gas licenses awarded to Burisma.
By 2016, the investigation was at its pinnacle, and Burisma’s management panicked. They had been contacting the State Department requesting it to help end the investigation. In the spring of 2016, Joe Biden was forced to act. He stepped in to protect his son’s employer, Burisma Holdings, and demanded Poroshenko dismiss Shokin.
Poroshenko tried to stall it, but Biden issued an ultimatum, “You have six hours to solve the problem, or Ukraine would lose a billion dollars in US aid.” Poroshenko capitulated — Shokin was fired.
Biden bragged about his accomplishment: ‘You have no authority. You’re not the President —Poroshenko said’ … I said, 'Call him.' “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b----. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."
In the process, Biden inadvertently admitted that President Obama, if not involved, at least was aware of the shady business of his Vice President.
At this juncture, Poroshenko realized the futility of his efforts and decided that having a percentage of something is better than a hundred percent of nothing. He made a deal with Zlochevsky. Poroshenko’s trusted man Igor Kononenko joined Burisma’s board. The vanquished enemies became allies. Miraculously, there was no longer a need for investigation, and a new prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, “who was solid at the time,” closed the probe. There was no longer a need for Joe Biden’s services either. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer eventually resigned from Burisma's board. Zlochevsky returned to the country. The “roof” had earned its pay.
The payment must be worth millions of dollars. The sixty thousand dollars a month paid to Hunter Biden and Devon Archer was a drop in the bucket. The big money has gone to someone else. Lacking an understanding of the Ukrainian business environment, the Republicans have been targeting Hunter Biden, a tiny fish in multimillion dollar international protection rocket who may not even be fit for prosecution. Thus far, he has served as a distraction from investigating the senior-level perpetrator(s).
Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a conservative think hosted at King’s College, New York City, which examines national security, energy, risk-analysis, and other public policy issues. He is the author of Anatomy of a Bolshevik and Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It. Mr. Markovsky is the owner and CEO of Litwin Management Services, LLC. He can be reached at info@litwinms.com
Photo credit: Rumble video screengrab
The Biden doctrine: “As long as it takes,” or “No matter how many die”
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden addressed a raucous mob of xenophobic Lithuanian nationalists in Vilnius following the conclusion of a NATO summit that pledged to massively expand military spending in preparation for global war.
Biden’s diatribe addressed the same themes as a speech he delivered last year in Warsaw, Poland, in which he pledged to “fight” for “years and decades to come.” Back in 2022, his unscripted rant compelled White House officials to publicly walk back the president’s remarks. But now his advisers no longer see the need to reinterpret and modify Biden’s bellicose statements. What he says about US war aims are not dementia-induced errors but actual declarations of the policies of his administration.
Speaking in Vilnius, Biden declared, “Our commitment to Ukraine will not weaken. We will stand for liberty and freedom today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes.”
The length of a war is invariably related to the toll in human life. The longer a war continues, the greater the number of casualties and deaths, of both soldiers and civilians.
Therefore, when Biden proclaims once again that his administration and NATO will supply money and arms “as long as it takes” to bring about the defeat of Russia, what he is really saying is that the war will continue regardless of the cost in human lives.
This is the barbaric essence of what can be called the Biden Doctrine: “No matter how long it takes or how many die.”
Biden’s speech, in both its delivery and content, was typical of the man: Thoughtless, ill-informed, full of malapropisms and mangled grammar. It was pitched to the lowest intellectual level and basest instincts.
Biden delivered lie after lie, absurdity after absurdity, claiming the United States, which has continuously destabilized, bombed and invaded other countries since the end of the Second World War, was a force for democracy and peace.
None other than Henry Kissinger, the oldest living American war criminal, once summed up with his characteristic cynicism the real attitude of US imperialism to moral principles. “The illegal we do immediately,” he said. “The unconstitutional takes a bit longer.”
Biden, whose own fingerprints are to be found on the scene of every crime committed by US imperialism over the last half-century, invoked “the United Nations Charter that we all signed up to: sovereignty, territorial integrity. These are two pillars of peaceful relations among nations. One country cannot be allowed to seize its neighbor’s territory by force.”
What contemptible hypocrisy! There is no single country that has violated the UN charters’ prohibition on the “use of force” as flagrantly and repeatedly as the United States, whose former secretary of State Colin Powell once declared that it was his goal to turn the United States into “the biggest bully on the block.”
During his time in the Senate and then as vice president, Biden was a leading advocate and supporter of the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 1991, followed by the bombing of Yugoslavia six years later in 1997. He backed the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and another invasion of Iraq in 2003. Biden advocated the American bombing campaigns and efforts to instigate regime change in Libya and Syria.
These actions were carried out in open and flagrant defiance of the United Nations and of international law. In 2002, the United States withdrew from the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, and it does not recognize the legitimacy of any international body to try US officials for the war crimes they regularly perpetrate.
Just last week, Biden announced that he would send cluster munitions to Ukraine, which are banned by over 100 countries because they kill and maim civilians for decades after conflicts end.
Biden made a garbled reference to Lithuania’s myth-based narrative of struggle against tyranny, and he boasted of the United States’ commitment to its freedom. But what Biden left out of his rambling history lecture was the intense collaboration of Lithuanian nationalists with Nazi Germany and direct participation in the mass murder of virtually the entire Jewish population of the country.
During the three-year Nazi occupation of Lithuania, 95 percent of the country’s Jewish population was exterminated—195,000 men, women and children were systematically killed.
This reality gave an ominous tone to Biden’s declaration that “the bonds between Lithuanian and the American people have never faltered,” praising Lithuanian exiles who traveled to the United States.
What Biden did not mention, however, is that two of the Lithuanian immigrants welcomed by the United States happened to be the individuals most responsible for the Holocaust in that country.
Aleksandras Lileikis, the chief of the Lithuanian Security Police in Vilnius during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania and a perpetrator of the Holocaust, was given safe passage to the United States and was employed the Central Intelligence Agency. His deputy, Kazys Gimžauskas, also emigrated to the United States, as well as three of his subordinates.
Neither of the two men saw a day of jail time for their participation in the Holocaust.
Even as he denounced Russia for refusing any “diplomatic solution” of the conflict, Biden boasted of his own role in the expansion of NATO. He declared, “I had the great honor as United States senator to champion Lithuania and other Baltic States to join NATO in 2004. Wasn’t I brilliant doing that?'
In voting for the expansion of NATO in 1998, Biden proclaimed “the beginning of another 50 years of peace.” In reality, the United States was deliberately setting the stage for the type of fratricidal war that has erupted in Ukraine, with the aim of drawing Russia into wars on its borders and bleeding it white.
Among the most absurd of Biden’s lies was his attempt to posture as a proponent of a “diplomatic outcome” of the war in Ukraine. 'Unfortunately, Russia has shown thus far no interest in the diplomatic outcome,” Biden said.
“Russia could end this war tomorrow by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine, recognize these international borders.” But he defined this “diplomatic outcome” as the total capitulation by Russia and the achievement of all of NATO’s war aims. Biden’s “diplomatic solution” is military victory.
The president’s provocative statements are intended to preclude any negotiated settlement of the conflict, which US imperialism sees as a critical component of its drive to subjugate Russia and China.
Biden’s “No matter how many die” doctrine means the war will escalate, countless thousands more will die, and the world will be brought to the brink of a nuclear conflagration. Nothing can stop this except the development of an international anti-war movement based on the working class.
Biden Authorizes Military to Call Reservists to Active Duty to Support Ukraine War
President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order authorizing the Pentagon to call reservists to active duty “for the effective conduct” of U.S. military support to Ukraine.
At the same time, the Pentagon designated the U.S. military support to Ukraine since 2014 under Operation Atlantic Resolve a “contingency operation.”
Biden wrote in a message to Congress:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility.
Operation Atlantic Resolve began in 2014 to bolster the U.S. military presence in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and annexation of Crimea.
Biden said in the message that he authorized the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard, to order to active duty any units or individuals not assigned to a unit.
He said in the message that the number would not exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, and no more than 450 members of the Individual Ready Reserve.
Pentagon officials said no troops would be deployed for combat to Ukraine.
Army Lieutenant General D.A. Sims, the Joint Staff J3 director of operations, told reporters:
Based on the level of presence and operations in the U.S. [European Command] area of operations, DOD’s support requirements have grown, as well. These authorities will enable the department to better support and sustain its enhanced presence and level of operations in the U.S. EUCOM [area of responsibility].
He also said the moves reaffirm “the unwavering support and commitment to the defense of NATO’s eastern flank in wake of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war on Ukraine.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said declaring Operation Atlantic Resolve a contingency operation “unlocks capabilities and authorities that…enables us to provide better support and sustain our forces. So this includes things like increased contracting responsiveness, personnel-related entitlements that — that give activated reservists the same benefits as active component personnel.”
He said it also enhanced the Pentagon’s ability to track spending directly associated with the contingency.
He said the U.S. would not add to the forces in Europe but would allow the Pentagon to replace some forces with reservists if necessary.
“What it does is it provides additional access to reserve component forces. So you’re now able to call on Guard or reserve forces to come support Atlantic Resolve, and [be] entitled to the same kind of benefits as their active duty counterparts,” he said.
“So — it’s not additional forces, it’s unlocking additional forces for use in support of this operation, if that makes sense,” he added.
Biden’s executive order comes just a day after he departed a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where NATO members pledged continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
At the summit, Biden declared that the U.S. has “given more than any other nation combined in terms of assistance and cost.”
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the U.S. has given more than $78 billion in government aid since January 24, 2022, including more than $43 billion in military aid.
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alf of POLITICO Letter ‘Foreign Policy Experts’ Calling for More Arms to Ukraine Tied to Arms Industry: Report
An open letter signed by “46 foreign policy experts” calling for more arms shipments to Ukraine published in POLITICO failed to mention ties of nearly half of the signatories to the defence industry, allegedly glossing over conflicts of interest, the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft claimed.
On June 5th, the neo-liberal POLITICO news website published an open letter entitled ‘Ukraine Needs a Roadmap to NATO Membership ASAP‘, calling for Western leaders at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania this week to commit to supplying Ukraine with weapons, fighter jets, and tanks in “sufficient quantities to prevail on the battlefield”.
The letter argued that Western leaders should help facilitate a “comprehensive transition” of the weapons systems being used in the war against Russia up to “NATO standards”.
“The focus should be on the transition to Western weapons systems; creation of a modern, NATO-compatible air and missile defense system; creation of a medical rehabilitation system for wounded soldiers, as well as a system for soldier reintegration into civilian life and a comprehensive demining effort,” the letter stated.
Although POLITICO listed the names of the 46 ‘foreign policy experts’ and claimed to have outlined their “affiliations”, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft — which argues for a less interventionist U.S. foreign policy — claimed that at least 21 of the signatories currently have connections to the military-industrial complex that were left unmentioned by the news outlet.
Quincy Institute Senior Advisor Eli Clifton writing for Reasonable Statecraft noted that “support for increasing Western military aid to Ukraine is not a view exclusively held by those with direct or indirect links to the weapons industry, but signatories of the letter are noticeably embedded in the financial umbrella of institutions and businesses with direct financial ties to some of the world’s largest weapons firms.”
The very first signatory of the letter was Stephen E. Biegun, which the POLITICO website described only as a “former U.S. deputy secretary of state,” while failing to mention that he also currently serves as a senior vice president of global public policy at Boeing, one of the largest weapons and military hardware producers in the world.
Boeing’s website describes Beigun’s role as being “responsible for advising and executing on Boeing’s global public policy matters in support of the company’s priorities and optimizing relationships with key stakeholders in the U.S. and around the world. He is also a member of the company’s Executive Council.”
Another to have their defence industry affiliations overlooked was Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark, who led the President Clinton-ordered NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in the Kosovo War dubbed Operation Allied Force. The article describes Clark as a “U.S. Army, 12th Supreme Allied Commander, Europe; senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center” while failing to mention his role as a senior board and company adviser at Vaya Space, which stated that Clark was hired to “support investment in and expansion of Vaya Space’s new technologies to the highly attractive Space (launch) and Defense (strategic and tactical missile) landscape.”
The investigation from the think tank also noted that numerous signatories have roles at the Atlantic Council think tank, which is funded in part by some of the top American arms manufacturers, including Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.
One such example noted by the publication was ex-George W. Bush diplomat Paula Dobriansky, who was merely described by POLITICO as “Former under-secretary of state for global affairs”, despite her now serving as the Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
The Council claimed that opinions expressed by Ambassador Dobriansky, nor any of its other fellows or experts are influenced by the think tank, which claims to be politically neutral. The director of strategic communications at the Council, Richard Davidson went on to assert that the ambassador does not receive any direct income from the Council.
However, while many experts that work with the Atlantic Council, or indeed other prominent think tanks in Washington may not receive a check from the institution itself, they are often rewarded in other ways, such as with increased speaking fees on the D.C. circuit.
Other organisations funded by military arms producers to have sponsored some of the signatories of the POLITICO letter, according to the Quincy Institute included the George W. Bush Institute, the Hudson Institute, the McCain Institute, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and the Center for a New American Security.
In response to allegedly failing to disclose such connections, a POLITICO spokesman said: “This is a public statement by 46 well-known public figures and foreign policy experts outlining their position on NATO membership for Ukraine. The signatories are listed by name and title so that readers can form their own conclusions based [sic] the array of professional experiences each signatory brings to the discussion.”
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